BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany is headed towards a surge in COVID-19 cases this winter, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said as he criticised four states’ plans to relax isolation rules for infected people.
Fearing that infection numbers could rise, Lauterbach said: “Then we would have an even stronger wave than we already fear and we are on the eve of a more infectious variant.”
The regional administrations of Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein did not have the federal government’s approval, Lauterbach added on the sidelines of a parliamentary sitting.
Those states, home to around two fifths of the national population, announced in a joint statement earlier Friday that they planned to abolish the national five-day quarantine period, meaning that those who have tested positive but feel fine could leave their homes if they wear a mask.
Bavaria in the south is to change its rules as early as Wednesday.
Reporting by Alexander Hübner and Christian Kraemer, Writing by Rachel More; editing by Matthias Williams
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